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ADAB i. Adab in Iran The term and its synonyms. Apart from a genre of literature (see section ii), adab in Persian means education, culture, good behavior, politeness, proper demeanor; thus it is closely linked with the concept of ethics. The first occurrence of its use in Persian is in…

ADAB ii. Adab in Arabic Literature In modern Arabic usage the term adab (plur. ādāb) denotes “literature,” but in classical Islam it was applied only to a limited range of literary works. Nearly all arabists have accepted that it derives from the plural ādāb of daʾb, which means manner, habit,…

ADAB, title of several Persian periodicals. 1. Persian weekly illustrated newspaper published by the poet Adīb-al-mamālek, who founded it in Tabrīz on 15 Šaʿbān 1316/29 December 1898. After having been suppressed several times, it was transferred to Mašhad, where it first appeared on 4 Ramażān 1318/26 December 1900. The last…

ADAM, GUILLAUME, 14th-century traveler. A member of the Dominican order, he came originally from the south of France (he studied at Condom in 1302). Ca. 1312 he was sent to the Mongol khanate of Iran; he traveled from Tabrīz to Hormoz, continuing on to India and by sea to Ethiopia….

ĀDAMĪ, ABŪ SAʿĪD SAHL B. ZĪĀD RĀZĪ, late 3rd/9th century Shiʿite traditionist. He was considered to have been a companion of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh imams by Shaikh Moḥammad b. Ḥasan Ṭūsī (d. 406/1015-16; in his al-Reǰāl, Naǰaf, 1381/1961-62, pp. 401, 416, 43l). He authored two books: a Ketāb…

ĀDAMĪYAT (“Humanity”), name of two Iranian periodicals. 1. A weekly newspaper published in Tehran in 1907 by Mīrzā ʿAbd-al-Moṭṭaleb Yazdī, who was also the founder of Zabān-e mellat. Said to have been in league with the opponents of the constitutional movement, he was a member of the tribunal of June,…

ADĀT “particle,” Arabic word corresponding to the Persian abzār which is used as a technical term in logic (manṭeq), grammar (dastūr), and rhetoric (maʿānī o bayān). Logic. Writers on logic class the particle as one of the three parts of speech. A particle does not, in itself, possess a complete…

ADDĀ, one of the earliest disciples of Mani (to judge from the Cologne Mani Codex, p. 165.6; see Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik V, 1970, p. 111, n. 32). According to the Middle Iranian “history of the Manichean mission” (Andreas-Henning, Mir. Man. II, p. 301ff.), he was sent as a…

ADERGOUDOUNBADES, a kanārang (eastern border margrave) appointed by the Sasanian king Kavād (r. 488-531 A.D.). He is mentioned only in the Persian Wars of Procopius; the form of his name given by that historian may represent *Ādurgundbad, an abbreviation of Ādurgušnaspbad. He succeeded his relative Gousanastades ( = Gušnaspdad?), who…

ADHAM, MĪRZĀ EBRĀHĪM, 11th/17th century poet. He was a son, by a daughter of Shah ʿAbbās I, of Mīr Rażī Ārtīmānī (q.v.) of the powerful Šahrestānī family. Mīr Rażī, sometime grand vizier and keeper of the seal of the properties assigned to the Imams, was himself a poet (see Ethé,…

ADHYARDHAŚATIKĀ PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ (“The perfection of wisdom in 150 lines”), title of a Praǰñāpāramitā text in Tantric style. It contains fifteen chapters, fourteen of which are spoken by a number of Buddhas, who expound the various methods of Praǰñāpāramitā. Each expository chapter is summarized by means of a mystic syllable. The…

ADIABENE, a district near the present-day borders of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, approximately 36° north latitude and 44° east longitude, bounded on three sides by the Tigris and its tributaries the Greater and Lesser Zāb, while eastwards it extended to Lake Ormīa. It thus corresponded with the heartland of the…

ADIB ḴᵛĀNSARI, Esmāʿil, a major vocalist of Persia in the first half of 20th century (b. Ḵᵛānsār, 1280 Š./1901; d. Tehran, 1361 Š./1982). His father, Mirzā Maḥmud Ḵᵛānsāri was a cleric but earned his living through copying manuscripts as well as from his inherited farmland. He was interested in the…